


“let me have this. I have no one else so please let me just have this, just for a while.”

by lilysdaydreams



Category: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, Hurt Peter Parker, Nightmares, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Precious Peter Parker, Sweet Peter Parker, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, spider - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-28
Updated: 2020-01-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:21:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22445545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilysdaydreams/pseuds/lilysdaydreams
Summary: Peter has a nightmare.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 48





	“let me have this. I have no one else so please let me just have this, just for a while.”

“Hey May” yelled out Peter, as he stepped into the apartment, grimacing at the smell coming from the kitchen. Peeking into the room, he could just see the top of… whatever was in the pan, the edges black and deteriorating. 

“I’m in my room! Can you come here for a second?” came Mays reply, muffled slightly.

Grabbing an apple from the counter, Peter threw his bag into his room as he passed it and then leaned against the door when he reached May's room. Normally he would have gone in and jumped immediately onto the bed. At the moment though, none of the floor space was visible under all the clothes that were thrown over the room, and he didn't want to risk Mays’ wrath when he stepped onto a dress that she was saving up for “when she lost weight”. 

“Um, Why are you packing?” he questioned as his eyes drifted over the old suitcase sat open in the middle of the bed. 

“Oh, I have to go for one of those conferences again,” she said falling onto the limited space that was left on the bed. “Y’know the ones, they happen every year and they say it's so we can keep up with all the field developments that have occurred but it's actually just to gossip about coworkers and the boss and the hospital. I went last year as well, remember?” 

Peter tried to hide his smile. Last year, May had texted him every hour of the day, detailing exactly how she wished that she could kick some of the idiots in the nuts. Peter knew most of it was exaggerated for him though, she didn't want him to feel as if she was leaving him behind to have fun. He was happy for her though, she got to finally relax for a week and spend some time gossiping with her friends.

Her next words broke him out of his thoughts. 

“You’ll be staying with Tony, of course.”

“Wait what?” Peter spluttered out, putting one foot forward and then hastily pulling it back. “Why?” he demanded, eyebrows furrowed. “I’m sixteen, not five!”

“I know sweetie, but I don't really feel comfortable leaving you alone. Plus I need someone close in case you end up with one of those injuries that you say is no big deal but then ends up being a pretty big deal.”

“Ugh, C’mon May, I'm not a kid and I already promised last time that I would be more careful” he whined, grabbing the clothes closest to him and started folding them to make some type of space. 

May simply leveled him with an unimpressed stare. “I mean, you can always stay with Mrs. Miller if you want” she suggested, the smirk on her face making Peter throw a glare at her.

Last year, he had stayed with Mrs. Miller, the grandma that lived across from them. She had 13 cats and for some reason, her whole apartment smelled of cabbages, and she loved telling Peter all the gossip on her friends. It had not been a fun week.

May ruffled his hair when he finally managed to make a way to the bed and plop onto it. 

“Hey, this is like a once in a lifetime experience.”

Peter looked over at her confused, he literally went to Stark Tower every weekend, how was this a once in a lifetime experience?

“Who else can say that Tony Stark is their babysitter?” she blurted out, falling into giggles at the look on Peter's face.

***

Peter's phone pinged with a message, and he grabbed it from the dresser only to see that it was from Tony. 

[9:30AM] _Get your ass down here_

Peter smirked at the message and grabbed the sports bag that he had packed all his clothes in. May had left at 4 in the morning with a big hug and a promise from him to not do anything that would give her a heart attack. Quickly locking up the door, he slipped the keys into his jacket pocket and bounded down the stairs. It was a Saturday so he didn't have to worry about school thankfully. 

Slipping into the car, he smiled at Tony and said a quiet “Hey Happy” towards the front of a car. A grunt was all he got in response.

“How was school yesterday?” asked Tony, fiddling with his phone.

“It was good, I passed the Spanish test I had, and Ned and I finally finished our chemistry experiment so now all we have to do is write up the report. I went out on patrol and all was pretty good, I stopped a few mugging, helped some drunk girls get home and there was this cat, oh my god Mr -”

“Okay kiddo, gonna stop you right there, you remember how you told me last week about the hearing problem?” Tony asked, projecting a hologram from his phone that showed a diagram of a pair of devices that looked a bit like earphones. “So I did a bit of thinking, and I sketched up the plans for noise-canceling earphones, however, I'm thinking of using 5 times the original density material and I have a feeling that it’ll block out all sounds for you but we’ll have to test it a few times to get it right. What do you think, wanna try and make a prototype today?” Tony finished, looking over at Peter to gauge his reaction. 

Peter stared at Tony with his eyes wide, as he started stuttering “O-Oh my god, Mr. Stark, Yo-you don't have to do this at-at all okay? Like, I was just rambling, and this- this would take us the day and-and it'll probably be expen-”

“Peter!” said Tony grabbing onto his flailing hands and holding them still. “This is a project that I _want_ to do with you,” he said stressing the ‘want’. 

“Do you understand?” Tony asked gently, letting go of the kid's hands.

“Yeah...yeah” muttered Peter confused. 

Putting a smile onto his face, Peter pointed at the hologram and zoomed onto the diagram, “Okay, so we can also add adjustable densities so that way when I need to hear stuff like someone's voice, I can…”

***

Sitting in the lab, with Tony only a few feet away from him, Peter worked on the earphones, already halfway through assembling them. Glancing at Tony from the corner of his eyes, he realized that he was so fucking lucky. Peters, not an idiot. He knows that there are worse off people n the world than him, who got dealt a shit hand and have to live through a horrible life. He also got dealt a shit hand. He was only a year old when his parents died, and he misses them every single day. He misses what could have been. But even more than that, he misses what _was._ He misses Ben. In his pretty short life, he's already lost two father figures, but here life is, giving him a chance at another one. Not everyone gets this chance so he's decided to treasure it.

A bang startles him out of his thoughts and he's already on his feet with his web-shooter pointed in the general direction of the sound, when he realizes what had happened. He stifles his laughter, watching Tony get up slowly from where he had fallen to the floor, groggy with sleep. 

“Yeah yeah, laugh it up,” Tony grumbles, swiping his hands at the holograms to flick away the files. Glancing at the time, he sees that it's 1 at night and grimacing, he grabs the kids shoulder, cutting off Peter as he teases him about being old.

“That's the fifth time you called me old today, kid, one more time and my ego might actually be knocked down a few pegs.” 

“I know, I’ve gotten orders from Pepper to call you that at least 10 times a day,” Peter teases, ducking out of the way of the half-hearted smack that came his way.

Peter yawns as the door to the elevator open and Tony leads him to the room put aside for him. Tony's room is down the hallway and he says a quick “goodnight” ruffling Peter's hair before heading down. Toeing off his shoes, Peter drops onto the bed, eyes closing as soon as his head hits the pillows.

It's 2 hours later, at 3:35 in the morning when Tony wakes to the voice of Friday.

“- in distress. Sir, I repeat, Mr. Parker is in distress. His heart rate has elevated and his breathing-” 

Not waiting for Friday to finish, Tony is out of the sheets and running through the hallway to reach Peter, barging through the door, eyes automatically seeking out Peter and then finally releasing a breath as he realizes that he’s safe. Breathing.

A sudden cry from Peter though, (“HELP!”), has him automatically rushing to the side of the bed, hands hovering because he's not sure what he's supposed to do. Hesitantly he puts a hand on his kid's shoulder only to jerk back when Peter's hands come to push him away.

“Please, please God help me, I’m stuck, Please, I cant-cant breathe,” he says through gasping breathes and Tony's heart is in his throat, what is he supposed to do. 

“Peter,” he says, not wanting to touch, in case Peter got even more scared. “Kid, you gotta wake up. I'm right here, you're okay.” he soothes, speaking lightly until after a few minutes finally, _finally_ , the kid opens his eyes.

“Mstr stak?” he mumbled, his breaths still coming in short gasps, eyes half-closed.

Tony breathes a sigh of relief, thanking god.

“Yeah kiddo, it's me, you okay?”

Maybe it's the words that trigger it, or maybe it's the soft tone of voice that Tony uses that sounds exactly like Bens, or maybe it's just Peter realizing that he’s not in the nightmare anymore, but in the next second, Peter has launched himself into Tony’s arms, burrowing his head into his mentors shoulder, great big sobs coming out of his mouth. Tony rubs his hand up and down Peters back, one hand in his hair, fingers tangled with the curls. 

“Shh, Shh, you're alright I have you. I'm right here.”

“Mr-Mr Stark, I-I was st-stuck and I could-couldn't b-breathe”

“No no, you’re right here, and I'm right here and you're okay. Deep breaths for me kiddo, you're right here.”

It continued like that until Peter was finally breathing at a normal pace, his hands no longer fisted into Tony's shirt but hanging limply by his sides. Clearing his throat, Tony untangled his hand from the kid's hair, slightly pulling back to have a look at Peter's face. His heart breaks when he sees the dried tear tracks on his cheeks, his red eyes and his red nose, before peter lowers his head, his cheeks blazing red as he realizes that he just cried on Tony Stark. Before Peter can even move an inch, Tony is there, tugging him back into a hug, resting his head on top of Peters.

“Buddy, what the hell, you scared the hell out of me,” he whispers into Peter's hair, finally breathing a sigh of relief. 

Peter sniffs in response.

Okay then.

“How about we get some water, eh buckaroo?” Tony whispers again, and then, taking Peters sniff as a yes, he hauls him up and starts moving slowly to the kitchen. Peters leaning his whole weight on him, no energy left in him and that makes Tony scared because, no matter what the time, Peter is practically bursting with energy, 

“Hey, sit down here kid” he mumbles, pushing Peter into the couch and then moving to the kitchen to grab him some water. Opening the tap, he glanced back at Peter, lip caught between his teeth as she saw that he hadn't moved an inch. An almost dazed expression had come over his face, and he had tucked his knees into his chest, staring at the wall across of him.

“Here Pete, have a drink,” and Peter takes the glass from him, his movements robotic and sips it slowly.

Tony watches his young protegee, wondering what he should do. Sure, he was no stranger to nightmares, he had them nearly every time he slept, the downside of being a superhero, it was practically in the rulebook. But he’d never had to comfort someone else after their nightmare. Normally he just drank whatever he could find, but that wasn't really an option for a 15-year-old Peter Parker. Also, he most likely couldn't even get drunk, what with having such a fast metabolism. Shaking his head, he hesitantly placed a hand on Peter's back and started rubbing up and down.

“You wanna talk about it?” he questioned, keeping his voice low. Peter's eyes flicked to his and then back down to his thumbs, that were pressed against the glass. He shakes his head.

“I'm not gonna force you,” Tony said, leaning back into the sofa and getting comfortable. “Just know that it'll do you some good.” 

Peter gave a small nod and Tony decided that was enough emotional talk for a whole year. Grabbing a throw blanket, he threw it at Peter and then said aloud, “FRIDAY, play a Star Wars movie.” He had never quite understood the movies, but he knew that Peter had like 3 posters of them in his room, so if this made the kid happy, then Tony could tolerate watching it. 

Peter whipped his head up to look at him, his eyes wide and eyebrows raised, “Mr-Mr Stark, you don't ha-have to stay up, you c -”

Cutting him off, Tony reassured the kid, “I’d be staying up anyway, once I get up, I can never get back to sleep."

“Just watch the movie,” he added at the end when it looked like Peter might continue disagreeing.

Turning back to the TV, he shuddered when his mind went back to how Peter had screamed. What had he done? This kid, this 15-year-old child, just had such an extreme nightmare, on par with the nightmares that he routinely had. _Jesus,_ he was only _fifteen_. The nightmare would most likely be related to Spiderman in some way. The only event that would give him nightmares, had to be Germany or the Vulture dude, and both of those were due to Tony. _God_ , Peter didn't deserve this. How could he have gotten him into this mess?

Thoughts swirled around Tony's head, his eyes still fixed firmly on the TV, yet not taking in a thing that was happening.

A soft-spoken “Mr. Stark?” broke him out of his thoughts, his head immediately snapping to the boy sitting next to him. 

“Yeah Pete?” he questioned, an eyebrow raised. Peter wasn't looking at him though. He had his eyes on his hands which were clenching the blanket tightly.

“It - It was Toomes” he finally whispered, his head still bowed. “I went to his lair you know?” and no Tony did not know, when was this and really _a lair_ , but he just nodded, smiling at Peter to let him know that it was okay. 

“It was this building, that was um un-underground. You know, like those car parks? It had all these pillars that were supporting the buil-building. There were a lot of pillars, there were like 15 pillars, I - I mean I guess they just need that much su-support, but yah there were a lot of pillars.”

Tony's eyebrows furrowed at the kid. Why was he rambling on about the pillars, was this another deflection tactic, did he just not wanna think about the actual problem? Before he could say anything, Peter had moved on. 

“So we talked for a little bit and then, he - he basically, he -” peter stuttered out, his breath coming out in short gasps and Tony almost told him to stop, becuase he didn't want the kid to have a panic attack. Pulling himself together, he ran his hand up and down Peters back, whispering comforting words to him. After a few moments, Peter took in a shaky gasp of air, and blurted out one sentence. 

“It fell on me.”

Tony's hand stopped on Peter’s back. Wait for what? What fell on him?

"What fell on you?” he mumbled his eyes narrowed as he tried to figure it out, his hand resuming rubbing Peters back. A small whisper had him dropping his hand, his mouth opened in shock.

“The roof” Peter had whispered as if he was afraid.

“He-He turned on this machine, well basically li-like a pair of w-wings, and-and they c-cut all th-the pillars in h-half, and-and the roof fell on me, and no one- no one was there,” Peter said, his voice becoming louder and more frantic with every word. His hands were pulling at his hair and Tony just stared at him because _what the fuck._

“No one was there, Mr Stark. I- I had to lift the w-whole building.”

What the fuck. What the fuck. How had the kid survived, shit what the fuck? Almost robotically, he grabbed Peter from his shoulders and brought him into a hug, his face pressed into Peter's hair.

“Pete, what the hell,” he whispered, not able to comprehend that his kid had had a building dropped on him. This 15-year-old kid, had come so close to almost dying, and he hadn't even known about it. He hadn't even had his suit, _because Tony had taken it away, fuck._ It was his fault. If only he had his suit, Karen would have let him known immediately, he wouldn't have had to do it alone.

“I'm so sorry,” he whispered, his voice cracking at the end. “I'm so so so sorry kid.” It's all his fault. It’s all his fucking fault. Really, he couldn't do anything right, no matter who it was, if you were around Tony Stark, you would get hurt. 

Peter pulled back a little, his eyes wide, still red from all crying. “No, no Mr. Stark, why are you sorry?” he whispered, looking so confused that Tony let out a soft chuckle.

“I'm sorry because It’s my fault, underoos. I took the suit away from you. If you had it, then Karen would have immediately let me know, and you would have had help in a second. You had to lift a _whole buil_ -”

“With all due respect, sir.” Peter said, cutting him off, “you taking away the suit was not what caused this to happen. It was Toomes who made it happen, and it's his fault.” His eyes narrowed as Tony opened his mouth, “N-No Mr. Stark, you have to understand. When Uncle Ben died, I blamed myself.” He paused ad then whispered, “I blamed myself for a really long time.” 

Tonys' mouth was dry. He had known about his Uncles death, from all the files that he had Friday compile. He had died in Peter's arms, from a shooting by a random mugger. He had stayed away from the subject because he knew that it would have been extremely traumatizing. He hadn't known that peter had blamed himself though. 

“A-And” Peter began again, after a moment of silence. “I was wrong. It took me a long time to-to realize it. But I was wrong. It wasn't my fault. It was the shooter's fault, and no one else's. No one except the shooter was at fault.” He took in a shaky breath, blinking his eyes rapidly. “So you need to stop. Do not, and I mean _do not_ blame yourself. It was Toomes' fault only. Only his.”

Tony stared at him, his lips pressed into a thin line. God, he didn't deserve such a good kid.

Shaking his head, he blinked back the tears and then gave a shaky smile to Peter. “Cmon,” he started, “that's enough feelings talk for one day.” Standing up, he pulled Peter up from the couch and started walking towards the kitchen. “Time to have some fun.”

Peter sputtered as Tony pushed him into one of the bench stools and then clapped his hands twice, the kitchen being flooded with light. Blinking a few times to get his eyes adjusted, Tony moved towards the pantry, yelling out “Music FRIDAY,” as he grabbed flour and sugar. The beat of something that was definitely not on his playlist, made him stop a foot away from the counter, his mouth dropped open as the first words filtered out of the speakers. 

_**“Baby cant you see, i'm calling. A guy like you, should wear a warning”** _

His mouth was half-open, already scoffing “What the -” but as his eyes fell on the teenager, his teeth clinked together as he shut his mouth. Peter's eyes had lit up as the tune had begun, singing the lyrics as soon as they started. Jumping up from the stool, he opened a random drawer and grabbed the first thing he saw, a whisk and held it to his mouth, belting out the next line.

_**“It's dangerous, I'm falling. There's no escape, I cant waittttt, I need a hit, baby give me it”** _

Tony turned back to the pantry, muffling his snickers into his fist. How the hell had he gotten stuck with a Britney Spears fan, what even was his life anymore? 

Grabbing the flour and sugar, he dodged Peter as he spun around wildly ( _ **“With the taste of your lips, I'm on a rideeee”**_ ) and put them on the counter, moving to the fridge for the eggs. A chuckle escaped him every time his eyes fell onto the kid, who was now grabbing random utensils they would need out of the cabinets. For a second, he only himself to just stop and stare. Stare at this 15-year-old kid who had wormed his way into his mess of a life. Peter would be so much better off without him. He was so _good_. He could be better than Tony had ever even dreamed of. And yes. Tony knew he was being selfish. If he truly wanted the best for the kid, he would let him go, push him away and be distant. Having Tony in his life would do Peter no good. But Tony was always a selfish person. Peter Parker brought so much happiness into his life, that he wrangled back the logical part of his bran and just whispered to it, “ _let me have this. I have no one else so please let me just have this, just for a while._ ”

Grabbing Peter as he danced to the fridge, Tony pulled him into a side hug for a second before pushing him back towards the countertop. 

“Okay Underoos, I barely know how to boil an egg, and you're a fire hazard on a normal day, so let's try not to burn the kitchen down okay? Okay grab those eggs and start whisking them, these are gonna be the best god damn cupcakes you've ever tasted.”

**Author's Note:**

> Soooo, hello! This was more of an exercise tbh for me, I wanted to push myself to write something a bit more emotional and I'm kinda happy with how it turned out. Please comment and give me some validation lol.
> 
> [come talk to me on tumblr](https://lilysdaydreams.tumblr.com/)
> 
> [If you have some loose change, consider donating to fund my writing time!](https://ko-fi.com/lilysdaydreams1)


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